sailing (2 out of 2)

In which I suddenly meet people from the internet

Today set out to be a quiet day of working/procrastinating from home, then a flurry of last minute plans and serendipity meant I got to meet people I previously only knew of online, and have some good conversations that will lead to future exciting work and travel related things. Sweet!

At short notice, my roommate Liz invited me sailing on the Charles. When we got there there were no boats available, but some friendly strangers had space in theirs and picked us up. One of those strangers happened to be Nate, whose Microsoft Research blog posts I'd read this summer and who had been twitter-introduced to me a couple of months ago by our mutual friend Doc. I'd been meaning to follow up and find time to meet up with him. After about 15 minutes of chatting with him and his friends in their boat, I realised who I was talking to. What are the odds?! Nate's research is relevant to mine, and he recommended a seminar group I should attend; bumping into him this way was an incredible stroke of luck!







Earlier today I learned that Shane is in town for a couple of days as part of a roadtrip around the US, so I met him and Morgan for dinner, and we talked indieweb, travel and vegan food for a few hours. And I might now have exciting and exotic christmas plans as a result.



🏷 boston indieweb jamesdoc life mit mofo27 natematias sailing serendipity travel veganstraightedge

Sat 17th of October 2015 at 3:12am (+01:00)

Days Eighteen, Nineteen and Twenty: Felucca sailin', then back to Luxor

Our felucca was a small boat covered in a foam matress, a few cushions and little else. There was a cabin at the front for the guys who were both sailing the thing, and cooking our food.

Thus, we lounged around.

That is all.

The toilet was amongst riverbank bushes, and the shower was the Nile. The Nile is exceptionally refreshing, by the way. We moored for breakfast, lunch and dinner; local food, prepared and cooked by the felucca crew, was among the best we'd had on the trip.

Lounging, for those wanting more detail, consisted of reading, writing, sleeping, playing cards, listening to music, sleeping, reading, playing cards and sleeping. This challenging routine was broken up by jumping into the Nile and holding onto a rope that trailed behind the boat. Then climbing back onto the boat to dry off in the sun and resume the lounging.

The morning after the second night on the felucca, we had arrived about an hour's drive away from Aswan. Nev picked us up with the truck, and we drove all the way back to Luxor. En route, we stopped at Edfu Temple for an hour. This quickly ranked as my favourite one. It was huge, plenty of places to get lost in, and enormous walls covered in heiroglyphics.

After lunch in Luxor, we spent a few hours at Rezeiky Camp (where we stayed previously) thoroughly cleaning the truck. When that was done we headed into town for dinner - more kushari! Without getting lost, this time.

Back at the camp we jumped in the pool for a bit (the pool which is distinctly more of a funny colour than the Nile, and into which you cannot see further than a few inches). we cleaned up, packed everything, and headed to Luxor train station, saying goodbye to Nev and the truck for the last time.

An hour later than scheduled, the eight-hour overnight train journey commenced.

🏷 http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Done http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Done aswan chilling out cleaning truck doing nothing egypt felucca idling laziness luxor nile sailing train travel

Fri 19th of August 2011 at 11:48am (Z)

Last modified: Fri 19th of August 2011 at 12:07pm (Z)